[Yubumsuk]

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2.../123_43001.html


"The statistics showed the ratio of obese people among Koreans aged 15 or older stood at 3.5 percent, the lowest.

"The most obese among the OECD member countries, meanwhile, was the United States ― the ratio of obese people was at 34.3 percent..."

And consider this, Koreans drink way more than Americans and generally eat much fatter cuts of meat.

[PoppinBC]

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2.../123_43001.html


"The statistics showed the ratio of obese people among Koreans aged 15 or older stood at 3.5 percent, the lowest.

"The most obese among the OECD member countries, meanwhile, was the United States ― the ratio of obese people was at 34.3 percent..."

And consider this, Koreans drink way more than Americans and generally eat much fatter cuts of meat.

Koreans (and Asian / European cultures in general) typically utilize the entire animal in some way shape or form. The U.S. wastes a lot of its meat... Also, consumption is the biggest issue the U.S. has. In my Human Geography class, there was a demographic showing percentage of needed calories consumed each day by the average person for different countries. It was scaled based on lifestyle, so athletes could have higher calorie counts, etc., and only the percentages were reflected.

U.S. Average Caloric Consumption: 142%
China Average Caloric Consumption: 101%
Japan Average Caloric Consumption: 104%
Korea Average Caloric Consumption: 102%

Also lifestyle plays a part. As well as societal views. I personally believe a massive portion of the issues in the U.S. health system are due to obesity and the health issues it causes.

[Yubumsuk]

Koreans (and Asian / European cultures in general) typically utilize the entire animal in some way shape or form. The U.S. wastes a lot of its meat... Also, consumption is the biggest issue the U.S. has. In my Human Geography class, there was a demographic showing percentage of needed calories consumed each day by the average person for different countries. It was scaled based on lifestyle, so athletes could have higher calorie counts, etc., and only the percentages were reflected.

U.S. Average Caloric Consumption: 142%
China Average Caloric Consumption: 101%
Japan Average Caloric Consumption: 104%
Korea Average Caloric Consumption: 102%

Also lifestyle plays a part. As well as societal views. I personally believe a massive portion of the issues in the U.S. health system are due to obesity and the health issues it causes.

I think it's almost entirely lifestyle and attitude. I attend a number of TEFL conferences in Korea that are usually a mixture of westerners and Asians. Looking around at white people it's like as if we (whites) collectively don't look anatomically normal compared with Asians. I was at one at Seokmyung Women's University where the desks are obviously sized for Korean females; a few of the westerners couldn't even fit in the desks and had to stand at the back. And I'm always a bit shocked when I visit Canada and go to places like Walmart. The average shopper looks literally twice the size of the average shopper at Lotte.

I think a lot of it comes down to a culture of making excuses in the West, and a very lazy example set by many parents and teachers. The fact that Asians also get a much larger percentage of their protein from seafood probably makes a difference, too.

As for your stats on caloric consumption, are they for food distributed or actual food consumed? I've read that about 19% of all food distributed in the US goes to waste. I don't know about Asia but I'd say at my school cafeterie about that much food ends up in the cafeteria slop bucket as well.

[xkrndreamer]

haha, the koreans here have the American epidemic of obesity!
at least, from my observations.

[Temoin la Nuit]

I'm not sure. The US has a culture that unhealthily encourages fat people that it's OK to be fat.

Stuff like Dove's ads, etc.

My coworkers seem to complain about "skinny pinkberryes" a lot.

In asia, being fat means being ugly, and the media/culture/society/everyone demands you change.

[Phaze5ive]

African continent wins anorexic contest. /thread

[little mixed girl]

I'm not sure. The US has a culture that unhealthily encourages fat people that it's OK to be fat.

Stuff like Dove's ads, etc.

My coworkers seem to complain about "skinny pinkberryes" a lot.

In asia, being fat means being ugly, and the media/culture/society/everyone demands you change.

uhm. what?
the dove's ads that i saw when i was back home were not about "be proud to be fat".
for the most part, the media in the states embraces a slim image, but also tries to talk about "being yourself".

fyi, there are a lot of fat people in asia.
last year i was at a school where the girls called koda kumi "fat" and said she needs to lose weight.
a week or so ago, i was watching a tv program and the 3 or 4 women who were guest commentators talked about having anorexia/bulimia.
i have a magazine with an ad that tells women that someone who's 5'3 and 110 lbs is overweight, and that their diet pills can get you down to 80lbs...which is apparently a "healthy" weight.

there are certainly a lot of fat people in the states, but it's not like asia is a haven of healthy-eating people who promote healthy living

[Temoin la Nuit]

uhm. what?
fyi, there are a lot of fat people in asia.
last year i was at a school where the girls called koda kumi "fat" and said she needs to lose weight.
a week or so ago, i was watching a tv program and the 3 or 4 women who were guest commentators talked about having anorexia/bulimia.
i have a magazine with an ad that tells women that someone who's 5'3 and 110 lbs is overweight, and that their diet pills can get you down to 80lbs...which is apparently a "healthy" weight.

there are certainly a lot of fat people in the states, but it's not like asia is a haven of healthy-eating people who promote healthy living

Uh, please don't FYI me like I've never been to asia. I lived in HK before, I definitely haven't been stuck in the US all my life.

There's fat people, yes, but a heckuva lot less. I think we can agree on that.

5'3 and 80lbs (Asia) would be better than 5'3 and 160lbs (America).

[little mixed girl]

^
i'm giving you and FYI because your post leads me to believe that your vision of asia is whatever you saw on a drama.

and no, neither weight is healthy.
it might be more visually appealing, but healthy? no.

[[HyuNi]]

I think it's almost entirely lifestyle and attitude.

I'm almost certain it's because Koreans are so BLUNT!

Some classics I hear from Korean mom's to their daughters:
"You shouldn't wear that until you lose weight"
"You look fat, what are you going to do about that?"
"No one will want... all of that" *points at daughter*
"You'll never get married!"

[clockwatcher]

Uh, please don't FYI me like I've never been to asia. I lived in HK before, I definitely haven't been stuck in the US all my life.

There's fat people, yes, but a heckuva lot less. I think we can agree on that.

5'3 and 80lbs (Asia) would be better than 5'3 and 160lbs (America).

False. The 5'3 and 80lbs person is anorexic and is probably half way to their death bed. The 5'3, 160lbs person is overweight but most likely won't be dying this month due to the excess weight.

[reuniw]

I'm not surprised. The Korean diet isn't exactly fattening as it is mainly comrised of raw vegetables from which Koreans receive their daily intake of protein. In fact, I've rarely met an overweight Korean person.

And consider this, Koreans drink way more than Americans and generally eat much fatter cuts of meat

Not really. It's really a question of proportion. Americans generally consume more meat (like on a daily basis) in their diet in comparison to Koreans who don't consume it in such excess.

[Temoin la Nuit]

^
i'm giving you and FYI because your post leads me to believe that your vision of asia is whatever you saw on a drama.

and no, neither weight is healthy.
it might be more visually appealing, but healthy? no.

False. The 5'3 and 80lbs person is anorexic and is probably half way to their death bed. The 5'3, 160lbs person is overweight but most likely won't be dying this month due to the excess weight.

Nice. And like I said, since I lived in asia, I don't really need a drama to tell me what "vision" I should be having. But thanks anyways. Or are you going to ask me for a scan of my HK citizenship card before you back off?

And 80lbs is not a problem. I've gone out with gals who were mid/high 80s, (although shorter than 5'3.. like 5'1, 5'0).. their health was fine. Certainly better than if they'd been 160.

[LaZClaraBear]

I'm almost certain it's because Koreans are so BLUNT!

Some classics I hear from Korean mom's to their daughters:
"You shouldn't wear that until you lose weight"
"You look fat, what are you going to do about that?"
"No one will want... all of that" *points at daughter*
"You'll never get married!"

my mom is like that..
if i tell her im hungry after coming back from my night class (10).. she'll be like "its too late. you'll get fat if you eat now. just go to sleep"
-_____-;;;

[erincait]

It is really sad that we are turning into a nation known for being round more than being the land of freedom.

Did anyone see the WHO short list? http://www.tlbc.ca/blog/index.php/us-makes...bese-countries/ These tiny countries are almost entirely obese!

Some things to consider; there are over 300 million people who live in the U.S. according to the census. In 2005 over 12% of Americans lived below the poverty line, a number that I'm going to assume has increased with the recession. An unfortunate fact is that it is quite difficult to make healthy food choices that are affordable. The cheapest items at the grocery are the most bad for you. Sodium enriched over processed foods packed with chemicals and sugars are the ones that a lot of Americans can afford. this may sound rude, but a lot of the obesity epidemic can be attributed to lack of education amongst poor families. They buy certain foods they can afford and grow up used to a certain diet and they don't know that they should be eating fresh vegetables or cutting carbs or w/e. Also, poor or wealthy for a lot of people the American dream has become embodied by one word; "More." Americans (and immigrant Americans) associate success and providing well for their families with excess. An excess of consumption on every level.
But even if people did not over eat they would likely still be obese simply by what the are eating. That coupled with poor exercise habits and a nation of people increasingly more likely to watch television or play on the internet (hypocrisy alert ^^ than to take a walk then we have a truly formidable obesity epidemic. We need to find a way to make healthy habits more affordable/ lower the poverty rate and to educate Americans more.

Also, can i just mention that we have created a very unfair societal view on obesity. There is no way that obesity is attractive, and to say so is in a way discouraging people from trying to make themselves healthier. But we have created a set of circumstances that is hard for people to overcome just by will power alone (never mind any health related causes of obesity), and should they really live in a world where they are ridiculed as unattractive no matter what? It is a catch 22.

I also think that Korea's general eating habits are more healthy. There isn't as large a presence of processed foods and most things are natural and homemade.

And 80lbs is not a problem. I've gone out with gals who were mid/high 80s, (although shorter than 5'3.. like 5'1, 5'0).. their health was fine. Certainly better than if they'd been 160.

... 80 lbs is not usually a safe weight. At the very least the BMI is too low. It means that the girl is very thing but has no muscle (muscle is heavy) and in fact thin girls who are are out of shape can be even more unhealthy than overweight girls. I am 5'2 and weigh 93 lbs. It looks alright on me, but it really does depend on how you carry your weight. I had a friend who was my height and weighed three pounds less than I do. She looked terrible and emaciated and had to be hospitalized for her weight.

[nekkid]

I'm too scared to visit any Asian countries =( I'm going to be the fat girl.

[PoppinBC]

I think it's almost entirely lifestyle and attitude. I attend a number of TEFL conferences in Korea that are usually a mixture of westerners and Asians. Looking around at white people it's like as if we (whites) collectively don't look anatomically normal compared with Asians. I was at one at Seokmyung Women's University where the desks are obviously sized for Korean females; a few of the westerners couldn't even fit in the desks and had to stand at the back. And I'm always a bit shocked when I visit Canada and go to places like Walmart. The average shopper looks literally twice the size of the average shopper at Lotte.

I think a lot of it comes down to a culture of making excuses in the West, and a very lazy example set by many parents and teachers. The fact that Asians also get a much larger percentage of their protein from seafood probably makes a difference, too.

As for your stats on caloric consumption, are they for food distributed or actual food consumed? I've read that about 19% of all food distributed in the US goes to waste. I don't know about Asia but I'd say at my school cafeterie about that much food ends up in the cafeteria slop bucket as well.

I very much agree with your thoughts; the US has issues as a society that cause its failures.

But the numbers are *consumption*, and it was noted all over the place and every time the data was referenced. The study was a massive global study, not sure if it'd be easy to find online, but I know in the U.S. alone over 30,000 sets of data were taken.

So imagine that... 142% average consumption, PLUS 19% additional waste. It's shameful. U.S. also has the most wasteful packaging systems in the world with more pounds of trash per person than any country in the world (there was some study that showed combinations of nations who added together had less trash produced in a year than the U.S.... astonishing)

[clockwatcher]

And 80lbs is not a problem. I've gone out with gals who were mid/high 80s, (although shorter than 5'3.. like 5'1, 5'0).. their health was fine. Certainly better than if they'd been 160.

80lbs and 5'3 is anorexic any way you slice it and is not healthier than being 5'3 and 160lbs regardless of what you're attracted to.

African continent wins anorexic contest. /thread

Dumb comment of the day, by the way.

[HERMIT]

I'm too scared to visit any Asian countries =( I'm going to be the fat girl.

You think that's bad, I just realized if I stayed in the US or visited Asia - I'm still going to be the fat guy.

[Tamago86]

Overweight is bad..but so is being underweight. Hong Kong in particular has the highest percentage of underweight girls I read. But gotta remember a lot of people in the US aren't just overweight, they're obese. The two terms are usually used interchangeably but being obese is worlds more unhealthy than just being overweight, if you're overweight maybe you have some trouble going up flights of stairs, your pants don't fit right, etc., but being obese can literally cut your lifespan in half.

I think a big problem is education as someone pointed out already. From personal experience I'm a 5'10 white dude thus raised on a mostly western diet and I used to be around 180 pounds (140 now), not technically overweight if you go by BMI but definitely not skinny, and I never learned anything about nutrition or effective weight loss methods in school. A lot of people like me started off thinking well if I just eat a lot less, then I'll get skinny eventually. Which is wrong because if you eat less than a certain amount of calories per day your body goes into starvation mode and slows your metabolism, so when you go off your crash diet which you always do you gain even more weight than you started with. My point is, how many of you actually learned something like I just said in my last sentence in school? I certainly didn't, and I think that goes for most Americans as well. People not only don't know how to eat right they don't know how to lose weight properly either.

By the way instead of arguing what's overweight and what's underweight just use a BMI calculator
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing...calculator.html

Unfortunately I think eating disorders and stuff in women mainly come from the modern media dictating what's pretty and what's not. If you look at medieval western or even east asian art chubby girls and guys were considered da sexyy.